In most of California forest management is simple, they lack the swamps and marshes that make forest management difficult in Florida to Virginian. Only the most rugged of mountain ranges are inaccessible. Selective logging and thinning, construction of fire breaks is simple and self funding while providing the cash to build extensive timber and fire road access.
Thinning is easy (even if it isn't cheap). But thin the forests and the weeds move in. Then the gophers and such come in to eat them. That destabilizes entire hillsides. The large majority of those trees being Coast Live and Shreve Oak can germinate at thousands of trees per acre. That makes a fuel bomb in just a few years.
No, it's not simple. It's just different.
In most of California forest management is simple,
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Not that simple.
You forgetting the spotted owl!
In AZ, some judge once banned cutting any trees on state and federal land, because of the owl.
That drove most of the lumber, paper and wood mill companies out of business.
After many devastating fires, lives lost etc. they finally concluded that it was a very bad idea.
But by then, there were no people to cut the trees and factories to process the lumber!
So we are still badly behind!